Home Office

Update on Home Office business

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: My rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Suella Braverman) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement:Today I wish to notify Parliament of a recent Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) judgment regarding compliance issues identified within a specific MI5 technology environment, and outline the handling of those issues once identified by MI5 and the Home Office.The IPT judgment in this case has found that MI5 unlawfully held data within the relevant Technology Environment between late 2014 and April 2019, and that the relevant Home Secretaries acted unlawfully for the period from December 2016 to April 2019, by approving warrants concerning material held in the Technology Environment in which applicable statutory requirements had not been complied with and failing to make adequate enquiries of MI5, despite being presented with compliance risks. During the proceedings, MI5 and the Home Office conceded a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (regarding privacy rights) and, consequently, of the Human Rights Act 1998. Further to this, the Tribunal has noted that it was not the case that MI5 should never have held the material at all, only that some small part of it had been retained for too long, and that the material had been used for valuable national security purposes.When the scale of the issue became clear in 2019 the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, established an independent review conducted by Sir Martin Donnelly. His Compliance Improvement Review identified three areas where improvements could be made. These were: improvements to support an effective compliance culture across MI5; improvements to ensure more effective sharing of information between MI5 and the Home Office to identify emerging issues; and improvements to ensure increased legal input to the MI5 Management Board and ensuring closer joint working between MI5 and Home Office Legal Advisors. The review made a total of 14 recommendations to address these issues. The then Home Secretary and DG MI5 agreed with the review’s conclusions and immediately began a programme of work to address them.In 2021 Mary Calam independently verified the implementation of Sir Martin’s recommendations. She concluded that “a huge amount of work has been done through the [compliance improvement] programme and the remediation work. Not all Sir Martin’s recommendations have yet been fully implemented, but significant, measurable progress is evident. MI5 have used the [Compliance Improvement] Review to make fundamental changes across the whole organisation and develop a new legal compliance operating model intended to cope with future changes in technology and data.”Today, all 14 of these recommendations have been addressed and MI5 continue to work on further improving their legal compliance. DG MI5 and I discuss this every quarter at the Ministerial Assurance Group, the setting up of which was one of Sir Martin’s recommendations, and my officials maintain close contact with their MI5 counterparts in respect of legal compliance.While the judgment is clear that there has been unlawfulness by MI5 and former Home Secretaries in the past, this relates to the period between late 2014 – and April 2019 and December 2016 – April 2019 respectively. There have been two programmes of work undertaken within MI5 focused on legal compliance, the introduction of further governance structures to ensure a more open and robust relationship between MI5 and the Home Office, and changes to IPCO’s inspection regime since the compliance issue came to light. The effort to address the compliance issues has been consistent and sustained since 2019.I am aware the judgment has found that former Home Secretaries unlawfully approved warrants between December 2016 –and April 2019 and I know this will trouble members of the House. However, all data obtained was in good faith and it was considered necessary and proportionate for the purposes of national security and the department took swift action in conjunction with MI5 in 2019 once the issues were identified.I would also like to reassure you that while this case has outlined widespread corporate failings between the Home Office and MI5, these issues are historic and the Home Office taken steps internally to increase collaboration with MI5 and ensure there is appropriate resourcing in place within the relevant Home Office teams responsible for investigatory Powers.I also wish to be clear that there has been no finding by the Tribunal that MI5 misused the data in question, nor any suggestion of this at any time during this process. As the former Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, noted in 2019, none of the risks identified relate in any way to the conduct and integrity of the staff of MI5.Finally, I would like to reference the endorsement the Tribunal has provided on the robustness of the oversight regime and safeguards contained within the Investigatory Powers Act, including the adequacy of the measures available to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.MI5 carries out a challenging mission to protect national security and they have made significant progress in respect of legal compliance since the issues were identified by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner in 2019. Its officers work on extremely complex and often fast paced issues to keep this country safe and I am grateful for their continued dedication and professionalism.I would like to reaffirm to Parliament that they have my full support and I am committed to continuing to drive forward change in this area to ensure the use of investigatory powers by all relevant agencies is as compliant as possible.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Building Safety Update

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: My Right Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations (The Rt Hon. Michael Gove MP) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:It is a basic requirement of a modern society that people should feel safe in their own homes. For too many people this has not been the case. It is not the responsibility of government alone to keep watch and to ensure that homes are fit for habitation, and that people can sleep safely; it is the responsibility of the industry that builds them, too. For too long, we know, that responsibility was not upheld by all in the way that it should have been; too many people have suffered and continue to suffer as a result.One year ago, we set about righting those wrongs with what should have been a statement of the obvious: the moral duty to pay the cost of replacing unsafe cladding belongs not just to government but to those developers, product manufacturers and building owners that put unsafe materials on people’s homes and continue to profit from them – and not the innocent residents living inside them.One year on, the laws passed by this Parliament and the actions taken by this government have systematically broken impasses that were considered intractable.Leaseholders have been given legal protections from unfair remediation bills for the first time, thanks to the Building Safety Act.Leaseholders can sell affected properties and move on with their lives, or know that they have the freedom to do so when they choose: earlier this month Colleagues across the House joined me in welcoming the statement from the six major mortgage lenders confirming that they would once again consider mortgage applications on properties that are covered by the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act, or where the building is eligible for a government or developer remediation scheme.The Building Safety Act created new powers to compel the owners of unsafe buildings to ensure properties are fixed, and to require those who are responsible for their defects to pay for their errors and corner-cutting. These powers are available not only to ministers, but to fire services, councils, and most importantly to leaseholders. The Government is continuing to work closely with fire services and councils to ensure that building owners are being held to account for their actions, and that, where required, enforcement action is being taken against them. Developers and building owners responsible for unsafe buildings should be under no doubt: there will be significant consequences if they fail to comply with their legal obligations.The developer contractIn April last year, I announced that the largest housebuilders had signed a non-binding pledge outlining their intention to fix all life-critical fire-safety issues in buildings over 11 metres which they had a role in developing or refurbishing in England. I welcomed their constructive engagement, as I do again now.I am today publishing the contract that will legally commit developers to delivering on their word; a commitment worth more than £2 billion that will protect leaseholders in hundreds of buildings. Developers will also be required to reimburse the taxpayer where public money has already been used to make their buildings safe. While there is much more to do, today is a major step towards putting leaseholders’ minds at rest.Once the contract is signed by these developers, leaseholders and owners in affected buildings will benefit from a common framework of rights and responsibilities that will get buildings fixed without cost to leaseholders. The contract confirms that the developers will inform residents in affected buildings how they will be meeting these commitments. I am grateful to those developers who have got on with assessing and remediating their buildings without waiting for the contract.I expect developers to sign the contract within the next six weeks, by 13 March. This includes every company that signed the pledge, as well as several companies that have regrettably not done so. If you built unsafe buildings over 11 metres but did not sign the pledge, I am putting you on notice: expect to be asked to step up in the near future. Now is the time to make a binding commitment. In signing this contract, developers will be taking a big step towards restoring confidence in the sector and providing much needed certainty to all concerned. They will confirm that they are responsible companies. I know, from the positive discussions I have had, that many will be keen to do so. This contract will allow those developers to plan for the future in the knowledge that they understand the full extent of their legal obligations.The Responsible Actors SchemeUsing powers provided in the Building Safety Act, I will lay regulations this Spring to create a Responsible Actors Scheme, and make sure that eligible developers that do not sign up are prohibited from carrying out major development, and from receiving building control sign-off for buildings already under construction.The regulations will set out eligibility criteria for the Scheme and will require members of the Scheme to enter into and comply with the terms of the developer remediation contract we published today.Major developers who have built defective buildings need to sign the contract and comply with its terms. This is not up for debate. Any eligible developers who refuse to sign the contract and join the statutory scheme will be subject to the prohibitions.I am looking at expanding the Scheme in due course. I want to capture all those who built unsafe buildings over 11m and should be paying to fix them. If that is you, you should expect to be invited to step up and join the Scheme in the near future.Holding wrongdoers to accountMy department’s Recovery Strategy Unit (RSU) has spearheaded legal action against recalcitrant freeholders and is actively investigating the concerning conduct of various companies across the built environment, including contractors and construction product manufacturers.To those freeholders holding back work to make buildings safe, even where the government has made sufficient money directly available through its Building Safety Fund: you must fix your buildings or we will take action, including through the courts. This legal action has already started, and leaseholders have already secured the first successful Remediation Contribution Order. I would encourage others to use these new powers to challenge bad behaviour.I have heard with great concern from residents and leaseholders about the actions of some property funds who are delaying vital remediation work. My message to them is clear: if you cannot fulfil your responsibilities and make these buildings safe, you should sell them to someone who will. We are also backing councils to boost their enforcement action against freeholders unacceptably delaying works to make their buildings safe with more than £8 million committed to support local authorities in the areas most affected by building safety issues.Building Insurace At my request, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reviewed the buildings insurance market for multi-occupancy residential buildings. Their report highlighted serious issues relating to commissions and other payments being shared with property managing agents, landlords and freeholders by insurance firms, with such payments making up at least 30% of leaseholders’ insurance premiums on average. The FCA also identified concerning obstacles faced by some leaseholders in trying to understand or challenge their insurance bills. This is not acceptable, and we must act.I can confirm today that I will take action to ban the unacceptable practice of managing agents, landlords and freeholders receiving commissions and other payments from insurers and insurance brokers. I will replace these payments with more transparent fees and over the coming year I will press insurance brokers, managing agents and freeholders to change their practices as a matter of priority. I will also arm leaseholders with more information, enabling them to better scrutinise costs. I will also ensure leaseholders are not subject to unjustified legal costs and can claim their legal costs back from their landlord. These steps will ensure that leaseholder insurance costs are fairer and more transparent and will rebalance the legal costs regime to give leaseholders greater confidence to challenge their costs.I am pleased to see that the FCA have committed to investigating broker practices and consulting on regulatory changes to further protect and empower leaseholders. While this is a positive first step, leaseholders require meaningful change to ensure that they are better protected in the future. Leaseholders also need insurance premiums to reduce significantly and urgently, but it is clear that the quality of data in the insurance sector must improve to make this possible. I expect the FCA to ensure that industry implements its new data collection code for fire safety, to report on what actions it will take to ensure a fairer and more competitive market by the summer and to continue monitoring this sector.I also welcome continuing work by the insurance industry on launching a UK-wide scheme to reduce the most severe premiums for leaseholders in buildings with significant fire safety issues, but I must stress the urgency: leaseholders need this support now.Transforming the built environmentWe are creating a culture of high standards that will transform the sector and ultimately the built environment, working closely with those who do that building. Together we will put standards and safety first, and must recognise that when these interests of those who live in homes and those who build them are aligned, everyone will benefit in the long run. The government will play its part in that not only through clear regulation, but also through leadership that holds wrongdoers to account.The new Building Safety Regulator will oversee this culture of standards. The Government will be taking forward an ambitious programme of secondary legislation over the next year to set the Regulator on firm foundations. Building owners and managers should already be preparing for the first requirement due to come into force soon – the requirement to register higher-risk buildings with the Regulator. I will be working closely with the Regulator to ensure that we have the world-leading regime that residents and leaseholders deserve, and I look forward to approving their first Strategic Plan in the coming months.A copy of the contract will be deposited in the library of each House and is available on GOV.UK.

Department for Transport

CAA Annual Progress Report

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Airspace Modernisation Strategy (AMS) refresh, published on 23 January 2023, sets out, through nine elements, the ways and means of modernising airspace, focussing on the period until the end of 2040. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) must report to the Secretary of State annually on the delivery of the AMS, through an annual Progress Report. This report details the progress made by industry, as well as work the CAA have conducted against each of the AMS’s elements. For 2022, the Progress Report reports on the previous AMS’s 15 initiatives. In total, six of the 15 initiatives are assessed as ‘requiring attention’, two are on track, one has been implemented and six initiatives have been assessed as having ‘major issues’. The Department continues to work with the CAA to ensure greater progress is made in implementing the airspace modernisation programme. Ministers are giving the programme the urgent attention it requires and are committed to delivery of the AMS. Areas of Progress Free Route Airspace (Initiative 2) was implemented in Scotland in 2021 and remains on track for deployment in Q1 2023 across southwest England and Wales. This will see airlines being able to fly more direct routes in upper airspace reducing aviation’s carbon emissions and will save CO2 every year equivalent to the power used by some 3,500 family homes (12,000 tonnes CO2/year). The Airspace Classification Review (Initiative 10) has made significant progress with the publication of the findings into the review of the Cotswold Region. This work has identified where airspace can be opened up for all airspace users to use (e.g., general aviation). Under the Deployment of Electronic Surveillance Solution (Initiative 11), DfT and the CAA established the Surveillance Standards Task Force, developing national, voluntary specifications for Electronic Conspicuity. This is a key enabler in the refreshed AMS, bringing together current and new airspace users, such as drones, in order to promote a safe and integrated lower airspace. Areas assessed as having major issues There are a number of initiatives assessed as having ‘major issues, in part because of COVID recovery and the complexities of the airspace changes in the London cluster. However, formal acceptance of the Airspace Change Organising Group’s (ACOG) Masterplan Iteration 2 in January 2022 was a critical milestone. This was enabled in part to £9.2m funding by Government. Iteration 3 will be published later this year following a number of public engagement exercises. Of the six initiatives requiring attention, timescales and delivery plans have been re-assessed and re-baselined as a result of publication of the refreshed AMS.

DfT Maritime and Coastguard Agency Annual Report & Accounts for 2021-2

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: I am proud to announce the publication of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) Annual Report & Accounts for 2021-22. The MCA does vital work to save lives at sea, regulate ship standards and protect the marine environment. The Agency has been playing its part in encouraging and enabling the industry to move towards zero carbon emissions from shipping and to prepare the way to regulate the safety of autonomous shipping.The Annual Report and Accounts consists of:Performance Report – How the MCA performed against its key performance indicators, and highlighting success;Accountability Report – Including the Corporate Governance Statement and the Certificate and Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the House of Commons; andFinancial Statements – Statement of Financial Position and notes to the Agency’s Accounts.During January 2022, the MCA celebrated 200 years of HM Coastguard undertaking crucial rescue activities. The last reporting year saw the Coastguard respond to more than 36,000 incidents around the coast, an increase of around 2,500 from the previous year. There was a significant rise in cases of illegal migrants crossing The Channel in unseaworthy small boats. The Coastguard continues to work closely with the French Coastguard to respond to these incidents. On 13 December 2022, the Government also set out its plans to tackle illegal migration and criminal gangs who exploit our system.MCA continued to raise the profile of the UK Ship Register during the last reporting year, with the launch of the Concierge Service. MCA also played a major role in supporting the decarbonisation of shipping.The UK Maritime Administration was subject to an audit of the IMO Implementations Code during 2021-22. This audit resulted in one of the best reports the International Maritime Organization has ever issued, validating our work to be a world leading organisation.The MCA have let the UK’s Second-Generation Search and Rescue Aviation programme. This will take account of how demands on aviation services and technology have evolved and will create a new service for the next 10 years.The Annual Report and Accounts will be available on GOV.UK and copies will be placed in the libraries of both Houses.

Department for Work and Pensions

Changes to Universal Credit Administrative Earnings Threshold Level

Viscount Younger of Leckie: My honourable Friend the Minister of State for Employment (Guy Opperman MP) has made the following Written Statement.The Government laid regulations to amend Regulation 99 (6) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 to raise the Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) level to £617 for individual claimants and £988 for couples in Great Britain from 30 January 2023. This builds on the Administrative Earnings increase which took place on 26th September 2022.The new AET levels are equivalent to an individual working 15 hours per week at the National Living Wage or claimants in a couple working a total of 24 hours per week at the National Living Wage.Increasing the threshold will bring an estimated 120,000 claimants into the Intensive Work Search regime from the Light Touch regime. This change will allow our Work Coaches to support those claimants with very low incomes to access opportunities to increase their earnings. This could include developing their skills, progressing in their current role, or by changing their job.The change in the AET level will complement the new In Work Progression offer that is being rolled out to all Jobcentres throughout 2023. Through this new offer, more people who are in work and on low incomes will be able to access Work Coach support to increase their earnings and move into better quality jobs.Corresponding legislation for Northern Ireland was laid in parallel to this instrument.We will communicate the rise in the AET to claimants through national press coverage. In addition, claimants impacted by the rise in the Administrative Earnings Threshold level will be contacted by the Department for Work and Pensions through their Universal Credit journal. Our Work Coaches will then review and agree new Claimant Commitments, providing support and setting appropriate requirements to help claimants access opportunities to increase their earnings.